Posted on 12/07/2025 8:44:17 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Beijing — A private Chinese space firm successfully sent its Zhuque-3 rocket to orbit but failed in its historic attempt to re-land the rocket booster Wednesday – the first such trial by a Chinese firm as the country’s growing commercial space sector races to catch up with American rivals like SpaceX.
Beijing-based LandSpace, one of the sector’s leading firms, launched its Zhuque-3 rocket into space from a remote, desert launch site in northwestern China.
The rocket entered orbit as planned, but its first stage – the portion of the vehicle that propels it at liftoff – did not successfully return to a landing site, instead crashing down, the company said in a statement.
“An anomaly occurred after the first-stage engine ignited during the landing phase, preventing a soft landing on the designated recovery pad,” the statement said. “The debris landed at the edge of the recovery area, resulting in a failed recovery test.”
The team would “conduct a comprehensive review” and continue to “advance the verification and application of reusable rocket technology in future missions,” the statement added.
Even though unsuccessful, the trial has placed the company at the head of a pack of Chinese firms vying to develop reusable rocket technology within a growing commercial space sector that Beijing hopes will power its competition with global rivals and help transform the country into a “strong aerospace nation.”
Reusable rockets are seen as key, because the technology can significantly lower the cost and turn-around time of rocket launches – a distinct advantage as global firms race to build out satellite networks and eye a future space travel industry.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Looks like their stolen blueprints fell short. Just like everything else the chicoms steal. and they steal everything from rocket stuff to house paint. not a joke
Rocketry is hard. Getting it off the ground without exploding is hard. Getting it back on the ground without exploding is even harder.
SpaceX has been making it look easy for a lot of years now. But it's not. SpaceX is just really, really good.
They ordered O-Rings from Temu.
It’s true. Literally everything they make and sell is stolen.
Perhaps the stolen blueprints were dummies.
“ A private Chinese space firm …” <——- oxymoron!
I heard a story once about President Reagan.
He allowed the Russians to steal the blueprints for a new weapons system. The blueprints were purposely altered by the U.S. before they were stolen, knowing the Russian knock off would explode during testing. It did!
Yep. If you ever watched the series The Americans, they used this in the show.
Space X experienced numerous failures before it achieved success and reliability. It’s next generation Starship program has experienced numerous failures and has not yet achieved orbital flight.
China will learn from its reusable rocket failures just as it did in the 1980’s, 1990’s and early 2000’s as it copied western products, became proficient at manufacturing those products, and ultimately destroyed the U.S. domestic manufacturing supply chains.
Lol. I just received my O-ring order from Temu yesterday. Fixing a faucet, not a rocket ship tho.
China is having some failures but it is Number two in the world behind Space X.
NASA and Russia have fallen behind
hahahahaha Obviously CCP clowns did not steal enough of SpaceX booster return tech
“China will learn from its reusable rocket failures just as it did in the 1980’s, 1990’s and early 2000’s as it copied western products, became proficient at manufacturing those products, and ultimately destroyed the U.S. domestic manufacturing supply chains.”
CCP is SOL. They will never get a SpaceX booster to reverse engineer. I hope SpaceX computers are air gapped where they need to be.
It went...BANG. It takes more than stolen blueprints. It takes working hardware and software, too. and more. And it all has to work together perfectly.
Yep. Look at Boeing. They buy out McDonnell Douglas and some how lose the technology to make capsules and rockets.
Stop buying them on Temu.
SpaceX pioneered, and took several tries to get it right.
Blue Origin nailed it on the second flight of New Glenn.
We'll see how it goes with these Chicoms ...
I work in aerospace. I know it sounds crazy but every failure is a success.
Bezo’s Blue Horizons has joined the reusable club.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.